Pescara – The regional secretary of the Abruzzo PD spoke today on the difficulties facing the Abruzzo airport, Daniele Marinelli highlighting how the construction site for the extension of the runway, inaugurated in February by the centre-right, never started. This project, financed in 2016 by the centre-left council, has in fact remained stagnant to date. Meanwhile, Marinelli underlines how passengers decreased by 19,022 units between November 2023 and April 2024, due to the reduction in flights and times considered inconvenient. The CNA had already intervened on the topic yesterday, calling for a necessary change of direction for regional tourism; «…we need to fully count on the role that the most important dedicated infrastructure, the airport, can play in attracting and facilitating foreign presences: The drop in travelers recorded between January and April at the Pescara airport is not a very comforting sign. Because if it is true that this is the result of the cancellation of two internal routes, Turin and Milan Linate, it is also true that the second above all represents a strategic hub for being able to reach Abruzzo also from abroad.» CNA had declared, quoted today by Marinelli, who criticizes the current management of the Abruzzo airport.
«Four months have passed since the farce inauguration of the construction site for the extension of the runway at Abruzzo airport. A sham set up by the regional center-right on February 5th during the election campaign, which he saw Marsilior with a shovel in hand in favor of cameras in pure Istituto Luce del Ventennio style.» The Dem secretary remarked, adding: « Once the party was over, the saint was fooled: the construction site never started, and the four and a half months trumpeted in the Saga press release to see the work finished are almost finished without a single move. So we will have to wait more time (how much?) to see the completion of the work which – it should be remembered – was financed by the centre-left regional council with the Masterplan way back in 2016.»
Marinelli pointed out that the airport is in what he defines as a “full arrivals crisis”, underlining how, according to Assaeroporti data, in the semester November 2023 – April 2024 there were 19,022 fewer passengers compared to the same period of the previous year.
«This is due to the cutting of flights to Milan Linate and Turin, – explains Marinelli – but also to the inconvenient times and lower frequencies which have penalized the Pescara airport since last January. The Cna did well to point out that there is a need for a change of pace, also because only 14.4% of tourism in Abruzzo speaks of foreigners: a figure which places us in the last places among the Italian regions for arrivals from ‘abroad. Is it reasonable to expect a different attitude from the Region on this infrastructure or are we witnessing the funeral of the dead airport?” Concludes the Regional Secretary of the PD.
 “broken promises and drop in passengers” – HGnews){kind=link}